indentHe awoke to the acrid taste of smoke.

indentChoking and coughing, he scrambled to his feet and roughly shoved the shoulder of his brother, Nikolaos, who was sleeping beside him. His darker-complexioned brother didn't need the extra awakening — he was also beginning to cough and gasp through the thickening screen of smoke. Rhyme and reason was not needed in this situation, for what they were to do was clear: escape. Ari roughly grabbed his older brother's wrist, leading him out of their shared home and into Jaded Shadows. The smoke had been carried to them on the wind, but the flames and fury were quickly baring down. Releasing his brother and putting a free hand over his nose to shield the smoke from it, he looked to his brother. Nikolaos' dark brown eyes watched him impassively, and they both nodded mutually. Neither could compute what this would mean in the future, but they needed to get out before they could contemplate that.

indentThey made a dash to the northern edges of Jaded Shadows, which was furthest away from the oncoming flames. Several times they saw creatures — lupine and not — scrambling in the same direction, which was a small indication that they were not rushing into their doom. Still, panic and fear flooded into all of his senses, heightening them in a bittersweet turn-around. Soon enough they had circumnavigated the Jaded Shadows mountain and were on the northern fringes, beginning to head towards the mountains that separated Bleeding Souls from the lands beyond. Lands that, to both of their fear, were on the path back to a home that wanted them dead.

indentLuckily for them, the escapade to the mountains was mainly uneventful. Both ended up collapsing on the rocky slope, gasping for air and purging their lungs from the clinging smoke. Ari wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand, getting rid of the debris that had caught in them, and gasped out words, "How much is burning?" Nikolaos drug himself to his feet, coughing into the crook of his arm, and looked out over the burning lands. "All of it," he said breathlessly, dropping back down into a sitting position again. "Well, this sucks," he went on, coughing violently once more. Ari could only nod.

indentWhat was really prevalent in the near-yearling's mind was how he was supposedly cursed. Did his mother really call it? Did he really bring this here? It could, of course, simply be a totally natural (yet devastating) event totally unrelated to him, but... there was still that off chance. He choked a sob, biting the side of his lip to keep himself from crying. His life had simply been skipping from bad to worse. "Where do we go?" he asked, once more getting rid of debris — along with tears — from his eyes. Nikolaos surveyed the land once more, noticing figures scrambling into the mountains, and then ended up saying, "Into the mountains, I'd assume."

indentBoth of them were speechless with the implications.